King of the Cell (DNF)

Chapter 29: Home

Philza POV

I let out an exhausted sigh as I stepped out of my car and onto my driveway in the cloudy afternoon. It was a pain, since up until just before I finished work it had been sunny, almost as if the fact I was cooped up inside made it happy, and now that I was free for the afternoon it was miserable, since it was probably going to rain later.

With my case of work files in one hand, and my car keys in the other I locked my vehicle behind me before heading up to the front door of my house, expecting it to be locked since Kristen was having a staff meeting at the school where she worked and wouldn’t be home until later. Much to my surprise though, the door was unlocked.

At first I was cautious, but I was reassured again when I heard the sounds on the TV. Whoever was using it was playing games as I heard the sound effects of some sort of Mario game echoing down the hallway. “Tommy!” I called out with a sigh. “What did I tell you about having the TV up so loud?” I asked, shutting the door behind me before walking to the living room.

Tommy was sitting on the couch with a shorter brunette, each of them clutching a controller as they played a game of mario kart. The blond was ignoring what I said, and so I made a loud ‘ahem’ noise to get his attention.

“Just a minute Phil,” the eighteen year old shrugged me off, not even looking in my direction as he did. “I have to beat Tubbo at this race.”
“I have told you several times to keep the volume low when you are playing these types of games.” I reminded him. “And to keep the door locked when we are not home.”

“I’m not a child, Philza.” He huffed out. “I am an adult man who can protect himself. I don’t need to lock any doors.” As he spoke he let out a yelp when getting hit by a shell.
“It’s not about being an adult man.” I reminded him for, possibly, the hundredth time. “It’s about my files needing to be safe because they have sensitive information.”

The blond didn’t respond, it seemed to he was too focused on the game to listen to what I was saying. I grumbled to myself about the eighteen year old going to be the death of me before I headed through to my office.

It was a locked room off the main hallway, and I fumbled with my keys for a moment before grabbing the right one to unlock the door. It didn’t have any windows or anything since originally the room was meant to be a large closet for storage. To be honest, it didn’t have the most room inside, but I didn’t mind because I could fit everything I needed.

Up against one wall was a desk, which was completely clean except for a couple pieces of paper that I used to scribble notes on, and a laptop which I used for my work. Underneath the wooden surface of the desk, was a filing cabinet with two drawers which was locked securely. I had the only key, and I settled on my wheelie chair before unlocking the bottom drawer.

This was full of all of the files of my patients from Pandora’s Box. They had past and present records of all of the people I had had visits with, sometimes also including other information to help me. I flicked through all the alphabetically organised names until I got to the letter G, and then through those files until I got to George.

His file was one of the bigger ones among the group, since inside his file I also kept information of the two other prisoners that he had named; Technoblade and Clay (or Dream, as George had referred to him). As I looked at the three photos that had been taken of the inmates on their first days in the prison, I couldn’t help but think over what the warden had told me yesterday.

Dream and Technoblade had been rivals and somehow George had been able to befriend both of them, which was apparently quite impressive. From when I had known the brunette, he had always been someone who kept the friends that he did have, and tried to avoid social occasions so he would never meet new friends.

Yesterday after I’d gotten home I hadn’t had a chance to look over the files, just having time to put them away in the filing cabinet before heading off to make dinner for my family. Now though, Tommy was distracted with his friends and Kristen was out working. Since Tubbo was over we’d probably have take-out for dinner, meaning I’d have a few hours before I was bothered.

I opened the pages that talked about the blond and the pinkette, reading all the information that had been taken down about the pair, and they both had surprisingly similar stories. Both were twenty three years old and neither could have any family tracked to them. Their lists of crimes had a range of different activities including drugs, assault, and murder.

There was something that I noticed though which was where they were arrested. Dream was arrested and sentenced within the same week, and he was arrested in the same part of L’manburg as George lived. I glanced over to Technoblade and saw that he had a similar story, although he was in a part of L’manburg that wasn’t the same, but was close by.

Another thing that they had in common was the day they were arrested, literally only hours apart. Dream was arrested in the late hours of an evening, and Techno the early hours of the following morning. Techno was also arrested on the same day that George was, however he’d obviously been in prison a couple months longer.

I couldn’t help but laugh at all the coincidences as I read through some evaluations written about Dream from past arrests. Apparently he was quite smart, and good at aligning himself with powerful people in any situation.

Having to be completely honest, George wasn’t powerful, and so that meant that Dream obviously hadn’t befriended him for that reason. Techno had never been arrested before, but apparently he had some court mandated therapy sessions with an evaluation written for him after that.

The evaluation was similar to Dream’s again, but I focused on the line saying ‘very manipulative and dangerous when it comes to something that he wants. Whether it be an item, information, or an ally (seeing as he believes friends are beneath him), he can often convince them of things or make them believe things that aren’t true for his benefit.’ I took a mental note of that as soon as I read it.

I was going to read further, but before I had the chance Tommy’s loud voice reached through the wall, calling out for me. In response I yelled out to him that I was coming before quickly putting the file away in its usual spot. I reassured myself that I’d be back to read some more later before leaving the room.

The stuff written about the two that George had befriended made me feel nervous and worried for his safety. He had been found guilty of killing my son, his best friend, so I did not owe him any sort of care of sympathy. But these two people felt somewhat dangerous and I'd have to look more into it, maybe for George's safety.
_________________________________________
1210 words